SOTM - Lesson 3

Happy are The Unhappy

Matthew 5:4 ESV

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Big Idea - Divine Comfort is Promised to Those Who Mourn

Introduction

Read Luke 16:19–31: “19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ””

Pray: Lord, on the Day your son cried “It is Finished”, your wrath and judgement meant for me and all who find hope in you was poured out on Jesus. Lord, I ask that we who are citizens of your Kingdom feel the weight of your grace and love. Amen.

Discuss the paradox of the rich man and Lazarus. They describe two kinds of people: Those who are exalted among men ( who “received your good things”); and those who are humbled before men (who received “bad things”).

The Kingdom is filled with those who, while on earth, are not exalted - not popular, envied, one that had the picture perfect life.

They inhabited the Kingdom, not because their worse life was the key to heaven. But rather, their pitiful life drove them to God.

This is what we talked about last week. We are unable to save ourselves, and so we turn to Jesus. In him we are saved.

And on the other hand, those who do not inherit the kingdom are those who ARE STILL poor in spirit, they just pay no attention to their need for a savior. Or more likely, they dislike their need for a savior. And so they instead boast in themselves as if they were not poor.

But this to God is an abomination (Lk 16:14b). And, so we see that those who do not depend on God are ultimately not blessed - for they do not get the Kingdom, but rather Hell.

But, I want to take this one step further before we move on. We really need to drive home this point, because if we miss it - we miss the entire point of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Your Entire Life Depends on the Grace of God.

Each individual atom in your body accomplished its purpose only because God is upholding it. Which means each individual breath, beat of your heart, and step you take, is a gift from God.

But even so, we are so poor in Spirit, that: 1) The gift of life we have, we only would ever use it to serve our own sinful purposes; 2) which means our hatred towards God would never allow us to depend on His Son; 3) and so we would never accept the Gospel; 4) therefore, it is incomprehensible that we would ever think we can stand before God, acceptable in His sight.

But yet, in God’s infinite wonder, He devised a rescue plan in which He we transforms us from the inside out. And so by His grace (an undeserved gift) He not only removes our guilt, but He gives us a new heart to want Him, and then - every atom of your body can be used to serve Him… but even this is only by His power.

Who saved you? God. Who gives you a heart to follow God? God. And who allows you to do good works now? God.

We Get the blessing, God gets the glory. Your Entire Life Depends on the Grace of God. And that is why, Matthew 5:3 says: “3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

We are blessed because we depend on God.

And that brings us to our text today,

Matthew 5:4 ESV

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessing - A Paradox

We start off with the word, “blessed”, which highlights that we are reading a beatitudes (attitudes to be), the character of someone who is in Jesus’ Kingdom.

And as we have just explained, these blessings are a paradox (a statement that seems to contradict itself).

Ex. of a paradox: “This statement is false”, “There is only one rule: there are no rules.”

When Jesus calls us blessed. It is also a paradox - these are standards that no one enjoys.

The idea however is that as while the blessing is not in the circumstance now, their blessing is fixed in eternity.

Ex.: Pregnancy & giving birth, getting your license, iPad kid (antithesis).

But here’s the deal, you do not get the blessing without going through the circumstance.

Countercultural! We do not look like the world.

Likewise, the world has counterfeit blessings (as we have seen in the story of the rich man and Lazarus) that end without the divine blessing from God.

And so, Jesus offers his Kingdom blessing,

Divine Comfort is Promised to Those Who Mourn

And this is your big idea: Divine Comfort is Promised to Those Who Mourn.

Let’s unpack this statement, and we will by no means capture everything in our lesson today. But I want to focus on two questions: 1) What does it mean to mourn?; 2) Why are they comforted; 3) How are they comforted?

What does it mean to Mourn?

Convicted of Sin

Convicted of our own sinfulness.

It is to be utterly hopeless about ourself - to be poor in spirit.

You will continuously see that each beatitude (attitude to be) is drawn from the previous beatitude.

Romans 7:22–24 ,“22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Convicted of the sinful state of the world.

We see in the bible that the citizen of God’s Kingdom has not only begun to grieve their own sinfulness, but the sins of the people around you.

We join in with the Psalter who says, “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law” (Ps 119:136).

We see the world headed to hell in a handbasket, and greater still we see the Holiness of God that will be poured out if they do not find hope in Christ. And we are cut deeply.

This week, we have been up close to the wickedness of the world. We recognized the 24th anniversary of 9/11, as well as the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Now, while the world has also mourned these tragedies, we need to be careful to recognize a distinction. Unregenerate people grieve, feel sadness, and mourn. But there is an unobtainable difference in the way a believer mourns (and remember, it is unobtainable because these beatitudes are apart of our new creation in Jesus).

The unbeliever grieves to the extent that it affects them: someone they love, someone who held the same ideals, someone they can relate to. But their is no grief for the person that we do not love nor have any associations with.

Have you noticed that there are those who didn’t care, and even those who celebrated the death of a man who lost his life early? Who was a husband and a father? People celebrated and then condoned even more assassinations. And this should not surprise you, because mourning for the unbeliever is a self-motivated morning.

People grieve, but only when it threatens their own life. Look at 9/11, we all here are far removed from that atrocity. And so, we make jokes and are light hearted about the deaths of 3,000 people.

But, lets take it a step further: a believer is one who mourns the spiritual realities of this world. While many mourn the assassination of Charlie Kirk, do we mourn over the assassin? That he became so demonic and seared in his conscience that he would do this thing? And do you mourn that, unless he receives the gospel he will spend eternity in hell - never to find truth, hope, or love?

Do you not realize that if it were not for the grace of God you are one mistake away from committing the same atrocities? To think yourself better than this man is to destroy the gospel! If you have been transformed by Christ, you mourn alongside Christ.

And that brings us to the ultimate example of what it means to mourn:

To be like Jesus our Lord

He was never recorded as a man who laughed (despite what you see on the Chosen), but was described as a man of sorrows.

Isaiah 53:3, “3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

John 11:35, “35 Jesus wept.”

Luke 19:41, “41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,”

Compare this to your own experience. This is certainly in opposition to the world’s goals. But is it also the experience you have of being a Christian? A people of superficial joy and no real sense of sin?

I think we have fallen into this trap of “self-esteem”: That it is a dangerous place to think poorly of ourselves and must at all costs find value in our motives, purposes, desires and wants.

And the issue is that we will live life with the goal of comforting ourselves. Your sad about the state of yourself? Give into your desires, fix your eyes on entertainment, pride yourself in your flaws and prove to yourself and the world that you are happy. If all else fails, you can take anti-depressants. Someone has a disagreement about your lifestyle? They are an enemy who makes war with hate speech!

And what we have is someone who is trying to find comfort in things that will never bring comfort.

Self-esteem is not our hope. Christ is our hope! When we look back at the end of the day and see the places we failed, where we didn’t live up to a standard of goodness and joy. We find our identity not in ourselves, and esteem ourselves. But we find our identity in Christ, who for the joy of loving you, he endured the cross, that you would inherit this Kingdom and find everlasting joy with him.

What does it mean to mourn? Here is a quote that sums the entire question up:

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount Chapter Five: Blessed Are They that Mourn (5:4)

To ‘mourn’ is something that follows of necessity from being ‘poor in spirit’. It is quite inevitable. As I confront God and His holiness, and contemplate the life that I am meant to live, I see myself, my utter helplessness and hopelessness. I discover my quality of spirit and immediately that makes me mourn. I must mourn about the fact that I am like that. But obviously it does not stop there. A man who truly faces himself, and examines himself and his life, is a man who must of necessity mourn for his sins also, for the things he does.

But, to say that we mourn is only half the truth. So, we must recall what Jesus’ whole point is: Matthew 5:4, “4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Why are the mourners comforted?

This here is the paradox of the life: those who try to make themselves happy remain uncomforted; but happy are those who are unhappy.

Matthew 16:25, “25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

So, we ask the question why? Why are they comforted? The answer to this is so sweet:

What we see is that God delights to comfort those who grieve:

Isaiah 40:1–5 “1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.””

This is the command given to John the Baptist that we see in Matthew 3:1-3.

Why are mourners comforted? It is because we have a God who delights to comfort; we are comforted because God has declared it to be.

And we know that this has already been decided and accomplished, Revelation 21:3–4, “3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.””

And when we see in ourselves utter hopelessness and dissatisfaction, it is then that the Holy Spirit turns us to Jesus as our perfect satisfaction: the one who lived a perfect life, died as our sacrifice, and rose for our hope of comfort in eternal life.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount Chapter Five: Blessed Are They that Mourn (5:4)

That is the astounding thing about the Christian life. Your great sorrow leads to joy, and without the sorrow there is no joy.

How are the mourners comforted?

So, you tell me. While the world tempts with promises for happiness now, do you think that it will comfort you? Do you think it is comforting the world?

Watch the news, look at the world as it actually is, and tell me that you will find comfort in your final moments.

But as for us who find joy - how are we comforted? Revelation 7:17 “17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.””

We are afflicted and troubled - but never crushed; at a loss in this world - but never driven to despair; we are persecuted - but never forsaken; we are struck down - but never destroyed.

We sing with our brothers and sisters that weeping endures the night, but joy comes in the morning.

It Is Well With My Soul

So, what do we take from this beatitude?

I think it is simply this: Weep Over Sin and Rejoice in Jesus

Do not put on an appearance of sadness or happiness, rather face life sober-minded and follow Christ’s example who was struck with grief,..

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount Chapter Five: Blessed Are They that Mourn (5:4)

…groaning, weeping, and yet, ‘for the joy that was set before him’ enduring the cross, despising the shame.

Horatio Spafford, a man who lived in the 1800’s and was close friends with the president of my alma mater, Moody, had a wife and a son in Chicago. He was a lawyer who has become known for his clear testimony of Christ.

During his time in Chicago, his four year old son tragically died to scarlet fever - devastating their family. Soon after, in October of 1871, a fire swept through Chicago killing 300 citizens and made 100,000 people homeless. Spafford was a wealthy man who assisted many of those who were in need at that time.

Spafford felt that his family needed a vacation and headed to England to see his friend Moody preach. Horatio was held back because of work and sent his family on ahead on the Ville du Havre. On the 22 of November, their ship struck by an iron sailing ship and sunk. 226 people lost their lives including 11 year old Anna, 9 year old Margaret Lee, 5 year old Elizabeth, and 2 year old Tanetta. All four of his daughters died that day. His wife was found unconscious floating on driftwood and brought to safety in Wales. She sent a telegram to her husband which said “Saved alone. What shall I do?”

Horatio hopped on a ship and headed strait for his wife. During his voyage the captain pulled him aside and told him that they were crossing the place where the Ville du Havre sunk. It was here that Horatio wrote this song:

Verse 1 When peace, like a river, Attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Verse 2Though Satan should buffet, Though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded My helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul. It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Verse 3My sin, oh, the bliss Of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Verse 4And Lord, haste the day When my faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, And the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.

In this world you will not find happiness, sin wreaks havoc in our own lives and the entire world.

Do not find hope in this world. Run far from it. And run to Christ.

Pray